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ABSTRACT
As the First World War headed towards the disintegration of the three European empires that dismembered the Polish territory at the end of the eighteenth century, Poles across partitioned lands and those living in exile were actively forming political groupings planning the rebirth of their country. At the same time as the main political groups emerged, preparations were launched by various political groupings to organize a new parliamentary regime. It would require a new constitution and an elected parliament. Top legal experts from across the entire Polish lands were invited for this task. An electoral ordinance was drafted and elections to a legislative parliament were promptly held as the initial steps for setting up the representative regime and the government based on the constitution. Mainstream political parties played a major role in shaping the new Polish state in the Legislative Parliament (Seym Ustawodawczy) following the elections in January 1919. The temporary constitution, known as the Small Constitution (Mala Konstytucja), enacted on 20 February 1919, established the Legislative Parliament as the supreme authority of the land whose decrees would be implemented by the head of state until such time as the permanent constitution would be adopted.
Notes
1 A. Albert, Najnowsza Historia Polski 1918-1980 (London, 1989).
2 Poster, printed by the German State Press, displayed by the German occupation authorities. Plakat niemieckich władz okupacyjnych zawierający treść proklamacji z 5 listopada 1916 r, [https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Królestwo_Polskie_(1917–18)].
3 Albert, Najnowsza Historia Polski 1918-1980, p. 28.
4 Provisional Council of State of the Kingdom of Poland.
5 Bukowiecki, Grendyszyński, Łempicki, Rostworowski.
6 J. Buzek, Starzyński, Balcer, Rostworowski (University of Lwów), Perczewski, Z. Cybichowski, Siemieński, Ochimowski (University of Warsaw), Kutrzeba, Jaworski (Jagiellonian U.), Lubomirski, Chełmicki, Zborowski, Konic.
7 J. Buzek, Projekt Konstytucji Państwa Polskiego i Ordynacji Wyborczej Sejmowej : oraz, uzasadnienie i porównanie projektu Konstytucji Państwa Polskiego z innemi konstytucjami (Warsaw, 1918).
8 Buzek, Projekt Konstytucji Państwa Polskiego i Ordynacji Wyborczej Sejmowej.
9 Buzek, Projekt Konstytucji Państwa Polskiego i Ordynacji Wyborczej Sejmowej.
10 S. Krukowski, ‘Mala Konstytucja z 1919 r.’, in M. Kallas (ed.), Konstytucje Polski: Studia monograficzne z dziejów polskiego konstytucjonalizmu, vol. 2 (Warsaw, 1990), pp. 7–18.
11 The Parliamentary-Constitutional Commission of 1917 already considered giving voting rights to women, but opted to leave this issue to the future Seym.
12 Electoral Ordinance. Dekret z 28 listopada 1918. [Decree of 28 November 1918], Dz. P.P.P. 18 Dziennik Praw Państwa Polskiego (Journal of Laws of the Polish State).
13 German Eastern Marches Society (German: Deutscher Ostmarkenverein, also known in German as Verein zur Förderung des Deutschtums in den Ostmarken)took known by the initials of its founders names: von Hansemann, Kennemann and von Tiedemann. Its main aims were the promotion of Germanization of Poles living in Prussia and destruction of Polish national identity in German eastern provinces.
14 H. Roos, A History of Poland (New York, 1966).
15 Krukowski, ‘Mala Konstytucja’, p. 11.
16 Albert, Najnowsza Historia Polski, p. 50.
17 Albert, Najnowsza Historia Polski 1918-1980, p. 51.
18 A. Ajnenkiel. Spór o model parlamentaryzmu polskiego do roku 1926 (Argument over the model of Polish parliamentarism) (Warsaw, 1972).
19 M. Pietrzak, Rządy parlamentarne. Odpowiedzialność konstytucyjns w Polsce (Wrocław, 1983).
20 Krukowski, ‘Mala Konstytucja’, p. 13.
21 E. H. Jedruch. Slady na Piasku (Footsteps in the Sand) (Warsaw, 2012).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Eva Cristina Hoffman Jedruch
Eva Cristina Hoffman Jedruch, is a Direction member and a Vice-President of the International Commission for the History of Representative and Parliamentary Institutions (ICHRPI) and a Board member of the Piłsudski Institute of America. She is a representative at the Standing Conference on Polish Libraries, Museums, and Archives Abroad (Muzea, Biblioteki, i Archiwa Polskie na Zachodzie) and a member of AAUW (American Association of University Women). She holds an MLitt and DLitt in medieval studies. In 1998, she published a revised edition of her late husband’s Jacek’s book on parliamentary history of Poland: Constitutions, Elections, and Legislatures of Poland, 1493–1993. In 2012, she published a memoir of her mother’s wartime experience in Polish.Footnote21 A new version of her mother’s story will be published shortly in English: Crossing the Bridges. Austin Macauley, Publishers. (London, UK).